You could say the same thing about early airplanes, early computers, early radio, early cars… in fact many people did. This bias doesn’t reflect the reality of

You could say the same thing about early airplanes, early computers, early radio, early cars… in fact many people did. This bias doesn’t reflect the reality of technological revolutions but is very common. Be mindful of this. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” - Thomas Watson, president of IBM, 1943 “Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” - Darryl Zanuck, executive at 20th Century Fox, 1946 “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” - Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977 “Almost all of the many predictions now being made about 1996 hinge on the Internet’s continuing exponential growth. But I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” - Robert Metcalfe, founder of 3Com, 1995 “Apple is already dead.” - Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO, 1997 “None of that sounds like a big impact on the lives of most people, who are already living in areas well covered by cellphone networks and will never afford to travel to space.” - hackernews user rick2b in 2023